That last posthumous album they put out, "Michael", was ok. There were some good songs and some not so good songs. But this new one? "Xscape"? I honestly believe that this is what the music a 30 something year old Michael would have been making today would sound like.

Where Mike's last living modernization ("Invincible") sounded sloppy, forced and misguided to me (not hating, there's some good songs on there too), this one really sounds natural. It doesn't sound like remixes to me. I'm really liking what LA Reid, Timbaland, StarGate and the rest did with these songs. Except for the weird, out of place off-beat claps in the 2nd vs/chrs of "Love Never Felt So Good". That's weird. Then again, maybe that's just the kind of syncopation our good friend Benji is into. I don't know. That's not my area of expertise.

But anyhoo, Xscape is badass. I implore any real MJ fans to dig in and enjoy. There's a cover/rewrite/re-imagining (or some other word that I can't think of right now) of America's "A Horse With No Name" called "A Place With No Name". This song makes me unbelievably happy. It makes me feel like Mike's still alive. It's beautiful. I'll stop being crazy now and let you listen if you so desire or if it's right that you should do so henceforth.

I haven't even heard the JT version yet. I don't really mess with JT like that and every time MJ does a duet with another pop star it's almost always like my least favorite shit on the album so I'm holding off on listening to this one till I've thoroughly digested the rest of the album.

Aros wrote:So these are all songs MJ had recorded before he died and now various top producers are putting their spin on them?

Sorry, sometimes I really do need a smart pill.

LA Reid went through all of the unreleased, recorded material and selected 8 songs to be "contemporized" by a team of producers, including Timbaland and (Swedish production team) StarGate, with the caveat being that they were all sung through top to bottom, multiple times, which to him meant that they were songs Michael loved and wanted to share with the world.

The album includes both the contemporized versions and the originals as they were recorded. IMO they are mostly all better after the updates, with the exception of the first single "Love Never Felt So Good.".